Cracks In The Sky
by kate657
Summary: They told themselves it would never happen to them. But it did.
1. Chapter 1

**1.**

Nathan and Haley followed Dr. Shaw's middle-aged receptionist into one of the three examination rooms.

"Dr. Shaw will be with you shortly, "Amanda Lehman informed them, smiling one last time before shutting the door softly behind her.

"Why can't she tell us the results?" Nathan grumbled impatiently and leaned against the wall, watching as Haley carefully climbed onto the examining table.

"She probably wouldn't be able to read them," Haley replied with a small shrug.

"Amanda's been working here for as long as I remember. That's at least eighteen years; she's probably picked up a thing or two," Nathan said.

"I'm sure he'll be here in a minute," she said, silently hoping she was right.

Being forced to wait for the results to Haley's latest pregnancy test only compounded the tension between the two of them. She had taken three home pregnancy tests and received two positive results and one negative.

The pharmacist at the drug store was the one that recommended they get a test done by a doctor, which brought them to Dr. Stephen Shaw who had been Nathan's doctor as a kid.

Nathan started pacing back and forth, glancing at the door every few seconds until he finally dragged a chair over beside Haley and sat down. He looked up and studied his wife's face, trying to decipher what she was feeling.

Haley had her hands folded in her lap. Her eyes were glued to the floor and she kept swinging one of her legs in mid air; something she did when she was nervous. "It can't be positive," she mumbled, seemingly to herself. Her voice quivered with fear.

"The last test was negative," he reminded her.

Haley scoffed. "After _two_ were positive," she pointed out.

"They could have been false positives," Nathan said.

She nodded in agreement.

A few minutes passed and Haley grabbed one of his hands, causing him to look up at her questioningly. Shaking, she asked, "What if they weren't?"

He bit his lip. "Let's save that discussion for another time," he said.

"Let's _not_," Haley said firmly. He stared up at her in shock. "I might be pregnant and we need to decide what we're going to do if I am."

The door swung open and a now grey-haired Dr. Shaw walked into the room. He looked at the couple and his smile widened. "I couldn't believe it when I saw the name on the file," he said.

"Hello, Dr. Shaw," Nathan said.

Dr. Shaw nodded. "It's been a while, Nathan," he said and his gaze wandered over to Haley, "I don't believe we've met."

"This is my wife, Haley," Nathan said.

Shaw's jaw dropped. "Wife?" he repeated in disbelief.

Haley reached her hand out to shake Dr. Shaw's outstretched hand. "It's nice to meet you," she said.

"Likewise," Shaw returned.

Nathan eyed the folder in the doctor's hands. "Are those the results?"

Shaw nodded as he opened the folder. He began scanning it, going over each line carefully like a lawyer examining a contract for a client. "Yes, they are," he replied.

"And?" Nathan asked.

He looked back at his former patient and his wife who was a new patient of his now. He could hear the terror in Nathan's voice and practically feel the anxiety coming off his wife in waves.

"The test is positive," Shaw replied.

Nathan dropped his wife's hand and let out a ragged breath. "Oh, no."

Haley, as shocked as her husband, didn't even notice the rough break of contact from her and looked down at her stomach with a mixture of wonder and fear. "I'm pregnant."


	2. Chapter 2

_Thanks to **JamesLover23**, **Lorilozz**, **xSmile**, **DayDreamer323**, **naley-obsseshunz-xOx**, **Emily Carol**, **lilmonkeygirl31**, **SLUVER15** and **haleyandnathan23** for replying. I'm glad you liked the first chapter. Leave some words and enjoy. Katy_**

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2.**

Two months later, Haley walked into her and Nathan's apartment after her last class of the day. "Nathan?" she called out.

There was no answer.

"Guess he's still at practice," Haley said to the empty kitchen. She knew Duke University ran extra long practices for the sports teams on Fridays and Nathan being their star freshman player, was expected to show up at every single one of them.

"No matter how many doctor appointments his pregnant wife has," she grumbled bitterly. Oh, but coming to the appointment would require Nathan coming to terms with her pregnancy and even after two months, that still didn't seem likely.

Okay, he had acknowledged that she was pregnant and she had told him that she was not going to have an abortion. It being her body, it was her decision and while she might not be sure if she wanted to raise their baby, she knew she didn't want to get rid of it. It certainly wasn't the baby's fault that the pregnancy was unplanned.

Two days after her no-abortion announcement, Nathan had told her that he supported her decision. The one thing they both agreed on was that they weren't going to terminate the pregnancy. Haley had tried to bring up adoption but Nathan had avoided it and everything else related to the pregnancy like the plague.

He would make up some excuse about homework, which being his tutor, she knew he had already done or sometimes he would leave to get in an extra practice with Skills. One time he had actually gotten up off the couch and left the apartment without a word.

That was when Haley had realized that she shouldn't press him anymore. If she put too much pressure on him, she feared he might leave her all together and she was not going to let that happen. Not to them.

She looked down at her stomach. "I'm not sure we'll be able to keep it a secret that much longer though." It was sort of an unspoken agreement between the two. The pregnancy was private. It was not to be public knowledge. Haley certainly didn't want the entire campus gossiping about how she had gotten knocked up.

Then the door to the apartment swung open. Haley turned around just in time to see Skills follow Nathan inside. "Are you sure Haley's going to be okay with us hanging out?" he was asking.

"Last time we were here, you never told her so she came out of the bathroom in that towel and yelled really loud," Tim commented as he came in right behind Skills and closed the door behind him.

Haley narrowed her eyes at the comment. It was embarrassing enough that they had seen her in a towel but to have it be brought up again was humiliating.

"I didn't know she was home then," Nathan replied.

Disappointment filled her stomach. Usually when a guy commented on how she looked or noticed what she was wearing or _not_ wearing, Nathan would tell him to shut up and threaten him with bodily harm.

"Haley?" Skills called out.

_Damn it, _Haley thought to herself. He was checking whether or not she was home and she was in the mood to do some eavesdropping.

She looked around in a panic to find something to explain why she hadn't said something when they first walked in. Then she remembered her ROKR was in her pocket. "Please, do not have forgotten the headphones again," she pleaded and smiled triumphantly when she pulled the headphones out of her other pocket.

She quickly set the iTunes up and _'Til I Get Over You_ by Michelle Branch filled her ears. Then she slammed the refrigerator door shut.

Nathan's head snapped up at the noise. "Hales?" he called throughout the apartment as he walked towards the kitchen. He looked at his watch and shook his head. Didn't she have class right now?

He stopped at the doorway and smiled at the sight. Haley had headphones in her ears and she was humming in perfect key to the song she was listening to while she emptied a can of soup into a pot.

Haley tore the label off of the tin can and turned around to throw the can into the recycling bin when she caught sight of him standing in the doorway. Her cheeks reddened with embarrassment. "Hey, babe," she said sheepishly. "How long have you been standing there?"

Nathan grinned. "Not long but long enough. I just got in."

"Oh?" she said.

"Yeah. Skills and Tim came with me. Is it okay if they stick around to play some _NBA Live_?" Nathan asked.

Haley bit her lip as she nodded.

"Are you sure they won't bother you?" Nathan asked.

"I'm leaving in a few minutes," she replied.

"You are?" he asked.

"Yeah, Lucas wants me to come over so he and Peyton can't do anything," Haley said.

Confusion clouded his eyes. "Since when is there a Lucas and Peyton?"

Haley chuckled. "Since two weeks ago, my not so observant husband," she replied.

He rolled his eyes. "But what about Brooke?" Nathan asked.

Haley shrugged. "What about her?"

"Uh, Lucas has been in love with her for two years," Nathan replied.

"He's had a thing for Peyton since he was twelve," Haley pointed out.

"Yeah, but Brooke is the one he loves," Nathan argued.

Her face became serious. "And she's also the one that left."

"And Lucas has already forgotten about her," Nathan stated.

"She's been gone for over four months, Nathan. He tried to explain his side of the story but she refused to listen to him," Haley replied.

"And now he's back to Peyton," Nathan smirked.

Haley narrowed her eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, her tone of voice daring him to insult Peyton in any way.

"Those two should have admitted their feelings a long time ago; it would've saved us all a lot of drama, that's all," he replied.

"Okay," Haley said, unsure if that was what he really meant or not.

"When will you be back?" he asked.

Haley shook her head. "I'm not coming home tonight."

"Why?" he sputtered.

Haley smirked because even with the way things were between them; Nathan hated being away from her at night. "I have another appointment tomorrow so Luke is going to drive me," she said.

Nathan froze. "Since when does Luke know?" he asked, his voice dangerously on edge.

"He doesn't. He thinks it's a gynaecologist appointment," she replied.

"Oh," Nathan said.

"I wouldn't do that to you," Haley pointed out.

"I don't think it's a good idea for everyone to know about it when we're not sure what we want to do," he said.

Haley was shocked. That was the closest to talking about the pregnancy he had come to in weeks. "I agree," she said, nodding. And she really did. She wanted them to figure things out themselves first before the pregnancy became public knowledge.

Nathan came over and gave her a chaste kiss on the top of her head. She usually loved that because he would pull her close to him and hug her but now she hated it. Lately, that was the only kind of kiss she ever got from him and it was usually his way of saying goodbye.

And she was right as he turned around and headed out the door. A few seconds passed and he returned. "Wait, didn't you just have an appointment?" he asked.

She nodded. "Last week."

"Why are you having one so soon?" he asked.

"Dr. Shaw is just prescribing me more vitamins," she replied.

Nathan studied her carefully. "But you're okay, right?"

Her heart flopped at his concern. "I'm fine," she assured him. And she felt reassured that he still loved her.

His face relaxed and he let out a relieved sigh. "Good," he said and then he was gone.

--

The next day, Haley was sitting in class listening to her professor Andy Hargrove who had returned to the U.S. four months prior to the start of the year prattle on about his latest business venture.

Andy had learned of Keith and Karen's engagement through an email Karen had sent him a few weeks after the engagement became official. Expecting Karen to be a married woman, he had approached her café wearily one Monday afternoon in July.

Their reunion was awkward at first and when he had asked Karen how married life was, she had frozen and her skin had drained of all colour. Before either Andy or Haley could stop her, Karen had run into the back room to regain her control of her emotions. That's when Haley had informed him of Keith's passing and that Karen was now pregnant with his child.

Andy had strayed away from the topic the next few days until Karen told him she was aware that he knew everything and that's when the two had formed a bond once again. They started dating again and within four months became engaged.

Karen was due to give birth in five months and Andy was going to be a stepfather to the baby but they would be married before it was born.

"And I urge any of you in the future to ask for help whenever it is offered because you never know when disaster will strike," Andy finished saying.

Haley chuckled along with the rest of her fellow classmates as Andy put the overhead sheet he had prepared on the projector backwards. "It needs to be turned over," she told him kindly.

He turned around and his eyes widened in shock at the mistake he had made. "Sorry about that," he said as he quickly flipped the page over so they could start copying the note.

Haley took out her pen and when she was almost done writing down the note, she dropped her pen onto the floor. "Damn it," she blew out as she leaned down to pick it up. At the same moment her fingers grasped the pen, she felt a sharp twinge from her stomach and let out a painful scream.

All of the students' heads darted in the direction the scream came from and a few nearby leaned over to offer her assistance but were unable to decipher what was behind her pain.

Now on the floor writhing in pain, Haley looked to them in a panic. "I think I need an ambulance," she said.

Within seconds, people were getting out their cell phones, dialling 911. There was an ambulance three minutes away.

A female student named Marianne Webber crouched down beside Haley and began looking her over. "I'm a medical student here. I'm going to look you over to see if I can see what's wrong," she explained to soothe Haley's fearful gaze.

"The paramedics are coming down the hall," one of the other students announced.

"Are you pregnant?" Marianne asked.

Haley's eyes widened slightly at the personal nature of the question and instinctively shook her head at the question.

"Okay," Marianne nodded.

The paramedics came over and strapped her to a stretcher, spewing all sorts of medical jargon and in the midst of all the chaos, it dawned on Haley that Marianne was not being nosy at all. There must be a medical reason behind Marianne's question because she was almost certain that none of her classmates were even aware that she was married.

"Yes!" she exclaimed loudly.

One of the paramedics looked down at her questioningly. "What?"

"I'm pregnant," she replied.

The paramedics looked at each other and exchanged worried glances.

"We better hurry," one of them said.

* * *


	3. Chapter 3

_Thanks to DayDreamer323, naley-obsseshunz-xOx, tammi, nightsky23, OTH.daddy'sgurl.06, naley4ever323, soundinmymouth3, Emily Carol, xSmile, luvnaley23, cali-beach-babe, ames 449, LaFilmeMichelle, HALEYANDNATHAN23, glassy waltz and TutorWife123 for replying. Leave some words and enjoy. Katy_**

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**

**3.**

"Female, eighteen, pregnant, complaining of sharp pain in the abdomen," the paramedics told the two doctors and one nurse that came to meet them at the ambulance bay of the hospital's ER.

"How far along is she?" one of the doctors inquired.

"Approximately three months," the male paramedic replied.

"Are you in pain?" the nurse asked of Haley.

_Didn't they just tell her that and would I be here if I weren't_? Haley thought to herself. "Yes," she managed to say and shot the nurse a dubious glare.

"Can you tell me your name?" the nurse asked, seemingly oblivious to Haley's annoyance with her.

"Haley Scott," she replied.

"Hi, Haley, I'm Lorraine Hughes. We are going to do a few tests to determine what the problem is," one of the doctors told her as the other one instructed the nurse and guided one of the medical students.

When the nurse returned to Haley's side, she started to remove her jewellery as well as her wedding ring. She held up the ring so Haley could see it and asked, "You're married?" She made no attempt to hide her surprise at the possibility.

"Yes," Haley replied, glancing at her ring as the nurse placed it into a tray nearby. Then realization finally dawned on her. "God, Nathan! Someone has to tell him where I am."

--

Nathan was standing outside Professor Andrew Hargrove's BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS class five minutes before it was scheduled to be finished, waiting for his wife.

A night away from her had been awful and he had been wracked with guilt as he realized that he had been treating her terribly lately. "I just hope she can forgive me," he said.

The door to the lecture room opened and students poured out but as he glanced at each and every one of them, Haley was not among them. He simply figured that she was inside talking to Andy and was about to head in when one of the students' words stopped him.

"You'll never believe what happened in class today," freshman Nancy Warren said to her boyfriend.

"What?" her boyfriend asked.

"One of my classmates is pregnant," she announced for the whole university to hear.

"How do you know?" he asked.

"Because she collapsed today," Nancy replied.

"It was a whole thing; the girl was screaming in agony, sirens, paramedics and ambulances," another student chimed in.

"Is the girl okay?" Nancy's boyfriend asked.

The two classmates looked at each other and exchanged uncertain glances. "No idea," they replied in unison.

"Who was it?" the boyfriend asked.

"I don't remember her name," Nancy said.

"Neither do I but I do know she was close to our professor. I think they lived in the same town or something," the other girl replied.

Terror enveloped him instantly. "Haley?"

The students turned to face him.

"Yeah, that's her name," Nancy said.

"How did you know?" the other one asked.

Nathan was about to answer when he spied Andy coming out of the room. "Where is she?" he asked of the professor.

Andy looked at Nathan and sympathy flashed through his eyes. "She's at the university hospital," he replied.

"How is she?" he asked.

"I'm not sure. I was just about to call and check on her," Andy replied.

"They wouldn't tell you anything; you're not family," Nathan pointed out.

"I'm sure I would've figured something out," Andy said.

"I'm going to go see her," Nathan said.

"Of course," Andy nodded.

When Nathan was gone, the students looked at their professor. "If they wouldn't tell you anything, why would they tell him?" Nancy asked.

"He's her husband," Andy replied.

--

Two hours later, Haley awoke to bright lights and an incessant beeping. There was an IV in her wrist and a fetal monitor attached to her stomach. "Oh, God, it wasn't a dream," she said.

She hit the nurse call button and a different nurse came to check on her. "Is everything okay?"

"That's what I want to know," Haley replied.

The nurse checked her chart and then nodded at the writing. "It says that I'm to alert your doctor when you wake up so I'll go do that and then she'll tell you what's what," she said.

"Or you can tell me," Haley said.

"That'd be breaking hospital policy," the nurse said.

Haley rolled her eyes and then shot the nurse a helpless look. "Could you at least tell me if I'm still pregnant?"

"No, I really can't," the nurse replied and then disappeared.

"Of all the," Haley started to grumble but stopped before the really bad words came out of her mouth. She looked down at her stomach. "I've never wanted to hit someone until now."

She looked for the dish that the nurse had put her wedding ring in before. It was on the table beside her. She picked it up and put it back on her finger. She knew that they had to take jewellery off for certain tests like x-rays and maybe even ultrasounds but she didn't like not having her wedding ring on.

"Well, Ms. Scott," someone said and when Haley looked up, she recognized the doctor immediately as Lorraine Hughes.

"Am I okay?" she asked.

Lorraine smiled. "You're going to be fine," she said.

Haley sighed with relief. "The baby too?" she asked.

"Yes, the baby will be fine now too," Lorraine replied.

"Now?" Haley repeated.

"It was in distress for a while but we managed to save it," Lorraine explained.

"Are you telling me I'm almost lost it?" she asked, not being able to push her fear away.

"Yes, but he's doing fine now," Lorraine replied.

Haley froze. "He?"

Lorraine looked at her in confusion. "You're having a boy," she explained.

Tears welled up in her eyes as she stared down at her stomach. "I am?"

"You didn't know?" Lorraine asked.

"No," Haley replied, shaking her head.

"Well, now you do. Congratulations. I'll be by later on to check on you," Lorraine said.

Her words were lost on Haley who was staring at her stomach in wonder. She smiled to herself. "A son," she whispered softly.

--

"I'm glad you're okay," Nathan said later on after Haley had filled him in.

"Yeah, _we_ are," Haley replied.

Nathan looked at her at the mention of the baby. "Yeah, about that," he started.

"What?" Haley asked softly.

"Your entire class knows," he said.

"Oh?" she asked, not really caring what people knew or didn't know, oblivious to the fact that Nathan did.

"Why did you have to tell them?" he asked.

Haley's looked at him. "Excuse me?" she asked, her voice growing a dangerous edge to it.

"You told everyone in your class you were pregnant. The whole school probably knows by now!" Nathan said.

"So?" Haley asked.

"We agreed that it would stay between us," Nathan reminded her.

"I know, but-" Haley began to say.

"And now everyone's going to know about it; the team, my parents, our teachers- the entire world," he said, close to a breakdown as he realized their lives were forever changed with the pregnancy becoming public knowledge.

"Would you stop saying it like that?" Haley snapped.

"What way?" Nathan asked.

"Like you're talking about a disease," she replied.

Despite his wife's darkening expression, Nathan chuckled as he said, "It's more a parasite than a disease when you think of it. I mean, it is living off of you."

Haley stiffened at his callousness. "Well, _it's_ not a parasite or a disease, it's a baby," she cried as she raised her hand to slap him square across the face.

Nathan grabbed his injured side and looked at his wife. "Haley," he began.

But Haley's eyes had narrowed into slits as she looked at Nathan furiously and added, "_Our_ baby and _he _almost died today!"


	4. Chapter 4

_Thanks to naley-obsseshunz-xOx, glassy waltz, Jen, lilmonkeygirl31, JamesLover23, NaleYLuV01, luvnaley23, NaleyOTH23, bellasmomma, LaFilmeMichelle, soundinmymouth3, TutorWife123, DayDreamer323, Emily Carol and xSmile for replying. Leave some words and enjoy. Katy_

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**4. **

Haley woke up the next afternoon in her own bedroom. The doctor at the hospital had released her in the wee hours of the morning with orders to take it easy for the next couple of days, which meant no class and lots of rest.

She wasn't surprised to find the spot next to her empty. Her husband was smart enough to know that if he had tried to sleep in the same bed with her, he might not wake up the next morning. If he were a genius, he would be in class where he belonged right now. She did not want him staying with her, taking care of her after calling their son a parasite.

"And if he knows what's good for him, he better not try to butter me up when he comes home," Haley warned the bedroom.

She kept her pyjamas on as she opened the door to her bedroom and entered the long hallway that would eventually lead her to the kitchen. She passed the bathroom on her right and picked up a basketball that was left in the middle of the hall.

When she entered the kitchen, she made a beeline for the fridge. "There is never anything good in here," she grumbled.

"What do you think you're doing?" A voice from the doorway asked.

After regaining her bearings, she turned to scowl at the person who had startled her. "Don't you know better than to startle a pregnant woman?" Haley demanded.

Peyton Sawyer didn't even flinch. She raised an eyebrow at Haley and laughed. "What are you doing, Haley?" she asked.

Haley gestured to the fridge. "What does it look like?"

"It looks like you're up, wandering around when you should be in bed resting," Peyton replied, coming further into the room and shutting the refrigerator door.

"I'm hungry," Haley informed her.

"Food has already been taken care of," Peyton said, as she began ushering Haley back into the bedroom.

When she was sitting on her bed, she gave Peyton an annoyed look. "What are you doing here anyways?"

Peyton's smile widened. "Your husband called Luke this morning," she replied.

"How do you know?" Haley asked.

"Because I was there," she replied.

Haley stared at her. "You and Luke spent the night together?"

A satisfied smirk tugged at her friend's lip. "Yes, we did," Peyton said, winking at her. "Best one-month anniversary ever."

"Too far," Haley informed her.

Peyton rolled her eyes. "_Anyways_, Nathan had class so he asked Lucas to come over and take care of you while he was gone," she said.

"So Luke is here?" Haley asked, scrunching her eyebrows in confusion. If Luke were there, he would have come to see her already.

"No, because he had class too so I volunteered to keep an eye on you," Peyton said.

"I don't need babysitters," Haley said.

"I tried to tell Nathan that you wouldn't be too keen on the idea but he refused to listen. When Luke dropped me off, he gave me the doctor's numbers and asked me to make sure you didn't get up unnecessarily," Peyton said.

"He did?" Haley asked, surprised that Nathan would act so ridiculous.

"He was very worried," Peyton said.

"Oh," Haley said.

Peyton caught the tone in her voice and gave her an inquiring look that Haley ignored. "So, I got the gist of everything- you're pregnant, you had a scare yesterday and now you need to take it easy for the rest of the week," she said, her voice practically begging Haley to fill her in.

Haley patted the space on the bed beside her and Peyton sat down, stretching her legs out. "I'm three months pregnant," she said.

Peyton looked at her incredulously. "Three months?" she echoed.

"Yeah," Haley said.

"How long have you known?" Peyton asked.

"About two," Haley replied.

"So you and Nathan decided not to tell anyone," Peyton concluded.

"We agreed that it would be best to wait until we had things figured out," Haley said, her voice edged with something that Peyton could only define as sarcasm.

"And the scare yesterday put a kibosh on that idea," Peyton finished for her.

"It was either tell them I was pregnant or lose the baby which I almost did by the way so I told them," Haley snapped.

Peyton stared at her surprise. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything by that," she said.

Her face softened as she nodded. "I know and I didn't mean to snap at you either," Haley apologized.

All of the pieces began to fit together. Nathan's guilty expression when he was explaining what happened, the comments Haley kept making and now the outburst. "No, you were snapping at Nathan," Peyton said, her voice filled with knowing.

Haley frowned. "Yes," she finally admitted.

"But is the baby okay?" Peyton asked, worriedly.

"He's fine," Haley replied.

Peyton perked up. "He?" she repeated.

Haley nodded proudly. "It's a boy."

"Congratulations," Peyton said.

"Thanks," she said.

"Now about me and Luke," Peyton said, subtly changing the subject.

"Yes, I can't believe you had your one-month anniversary yesterday," Haley said gleefully.

"What do you mean?" Peyton asked, offended.

"Just that it's gone by really fast," Haley replied, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Peyton had taken what she said the wrong way.

"Oh," Peyton relaxed.

"Are you happy?" Haley asked.

Peyton stopped to think for a minute. "Strangely, I am very happy," she replied.

"Why is that strange?" Haley asked.

"Because sometimes it seems like I never am," Peyton explained.

"Huh?" Haley asked.

"Well, whenever I get a little happy, something always happens to make it go away," Peyton replied.

"Like what?" Haley asked.

"Well, when Ellie and I were working on the benefit album together, it was great because we were getting to know each other but then she died," Peyton said.

"Yeah," Haley remembered.

"And Jake got in the way of my potential happiness with Pete," Peyton replied.

"Nothing got in your way with Pete but you because you followed your heart to Jake in Savannah," Haley replied.

"That's true but then I mumbled something in my sleep, Jake heard it and I came back to Tree Hill," Peyton said.

"Because you still had feelings for Luke," Haley said.

"And of course, Brooke got in the way of that," Peyton said.

"They were dating," Haley pointed out.

Peyton nodded. "I know and I hate that she had to find out about that stupid kiss during the shooting that way but it really was innocent then," she explained.

"Sure it was," Haley said.

"It _was_," Peyton insisted.

"I'm just kidding around. I know you didn't set out to hurt Brooke again but you can't exactly blame her for thinking that the kiss didn't have some romantic significance especially when you told her that you still had feelings for Luke," Haley said.

"That kiss happened before I realized I had feelings for Luke. I was still in love with Jake when it happened," Peyton said.

"I know that but Brooke will never believe that because of what happened before and that is why she went to California State," Haley replied.

"Do you ever talk to her?" Peyton asked.

"She calls every once in a while, yeah," Haley replied.

"How is she doing?" Peyton asked.

"Fine. Last time I talked to her, she told me that she had scored some internship with a famous designer in LA who's going to help her get her clothing line up and running," Haley replied.

"That's awesome," Peyton said, smiling at her former friend's success. "Does she know about me and Luke?"

Haley nodded. "I told her."

"And?" Peyton asked.

"Nothing," Haley replied.

"She didn't say anything?" Peyton asked.

"She said that she wasn't surprised that the two of you were together now but if you're asking if she gave you her blessing, the answer is no and I doubt she ever will," Haley replied.

"I know that," Peyton said.

"So what else is going on?" Haley asked.

"The whole campus is buzzing about you," Peyton replied.

"Fabulous," Haley groaned.

--

"How is Haley doing, anyways?" Skills asked of Nathan when they were walking out of their philosophy class.

Nathan looked at him and shook his head. "I don't know," he replied.

"What are you two talking about?" Lucas asked catching up to his brother and old friend after being let out a minute later from his own class.

"What else?" Skills shot back dramatically. "Haley J.S. collapses in her class yesterday and I'm asking how my friend is except this fool says he doesn't know."

Luke turned to his brother for an answer. "You live with her."

"We're not speaking," he replied.

"What?" Lucas asked.

"Well, actually, she's not speaking to me," Nathan corrected himself.

Skills studied his friend's haggard face. "What'd you do?"

"I don't feel like talking about it," he said.

"You really messed up then, huh?" Lucas asked while he and Skills exchanged knowing glances.

Nathan stared at them in confusion.

"If you won't tell us what happened, that means you did something you're ashamed of and chances are we'll think you're an ass too so you don't want more hate thrown your way," Skills said.

"Or it means that it's a private matter between me and my wife," Nathan countered.

"Do you think Haley shares that sentiment?" Lucas asked.

"What are you talking about?" Nathan asked.

"Well, we left her alone with Peyton and girls dish about everything. Do you think there's even the slightest chance Haley is not flapping her gums to my girlfriend this very minute?" Lucas asked.

"She wouldn't," Nathan said.

"I've known her longer than you, Nathan. Actually, we both have," Lucas said.

"Wait, hold on a second," Skills said, interrupting the brothers. When they both looked at him, Skills turned to Lucas. "Peyton is your girlfriend?"

"Yes," Lucas replied.

"Since when?" Skills asked.

"Since like a month ago. Pay attention," Nathan scolded.

"Whatever," Skills shot back.

"I suggest you get home and work things out with your wife," Lucas said, changing the subject back to Nathan and Haley rather than his own love life.

"I wish that I could but it's not that easy. I can't fix what happened between us with an apology," Nathan said.

"Well, if we knew what happened, we might be able to make a few suggestions," Lucas remarked.

Nathan glared at his brother warningly. "Nice try but I'm not telling you."

"Well, good luck," Skills said, giving them each a friendly slap on the shoulder. "I'm going to meet up with Bevin."

Nathan and Lucas walked over to their cars and drove over to Nathan and Haley's apartment.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Haley said after polishing off her sixth piece of pizza.

"I think that's part of being pregnant," Peyton remarked.

Haley smirked. "Yeah, not the fun part."

"Which part is fun again?" Peyton asked.

"Well, having a baby growing inside of you is pretty awesome, if you ask me," Haley replied, getting up.

Peyton dropped her plate instantly, got to her feet and stood in front of Haley's way. "What are you doing?"

Haley looked in the direction of the bathroom which thankfully, there was one inside their bedroom as well as another one in the hallway. "I'm going to throw up and I'd prefer to do it in private if you don't mind," she said, effortlessly moving the blonde out of her way.

While Haley was in the bathroom, the door to the apartment opened and Peyton could hear Nathan and Lucas talking back and forth.

"Mind your own business, Luke," Nathan ordered.

"If something is upsetting her, I want to know what it is," Luke said.

"No," Nathan said.

"Haley is my best friend," Lucas pointed out.

"My wife," Nathan retorted.

"You're not the only person who cares about her or worries about her either," Lucas said.

"I know that and I appreciate it but for the last time, it is none of your business," Nathan said.

Peyton shook her head at their bickering as she stomped out of the bedroom, ready to confront them on their ridiculous behaviour. "Would you two pipe down?" she demanded.

Lucas' face perked up upon seeing her which made her smile inside. "Hey, you," he said, coming over and kissing her on the cheek.

Nathan was looking at the bedroom. "Where is she?" he asked.

"Relax, Nathan. She's in the bathroom," Peyton said.

Nathan nodded and started to walk into the bedroom.

"I wouldn't go in there," Peyton said.

Nathan stopped instantly and turned to look at her. "Why not?"

"I think you know why," Peyton replied.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Nathan demanded.

Peyton rolled her eyes. "Look, I don't know what you did to her but I do know that she is ticked off. But she's in there throwing up and she would appreciate her privacy regardless of how she felt towards you right now," she replied.

Nathan nodded in agreement.

"So you don't know what's going on either?" Lucas asked in disappointment.

Peyton gave him an incredulous look. "Of course I don't. Haley's not like that," she replied.

Nathan looked at his brother triumphantly. "I told you," he said.

The bedroom door opened and Haley walked down the hall and into the living room. "Hey, Luke," she said brightly, coming over and hugging her friend.

"Hey, Hales, how are you feeling?" Lucas asked, his voice muffled by her shoulder.

"Nauseous, but otherwise I'm fine," she replied.

Peyton grabbed her purse and jacket. "We should get going, Luke," she said, looking at him and then at Nathan and Haley pointedly.

"Yeah, sure," he said, mumbling a goodbye to Nathan and Haley on their way out the door.

When the door closed, Nathan and Haley stood together in silence for a few minute, each stealing small glances at each other when the other wasn't looking.

Then Haley sighed heavily and started to walk away but as she brushed past him, Nathan grabbed her gently by the arm, pulling her to an immediate stop beside him.

"Haley, I really," he started to say.

"Don't," Haley said, shaking her head at him.

"We need to talk," he told her.

"Yeah, we do but not now," she said, pulling her arm out of his grasp. "I'm not ready yet."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

Haley stopped walking away and turned around, revealing the tears that were beginning to stream down her face. "You hurt me," she told him.

"I know," he said.

"And I'm still furious with you," Haley said.

"I'm mad at myself," he admitted.

That got her attention. "What?" she asked, walking closer to him but still keeping her distance.

"Comparing the baby to a parasite; I never should have said that," he replied. He sunk down in a nearby chair and shook his head. "No matter how conflicted I am about this pregnancy, I know deep down that any child of yours could never be anything more than amazing."

Haley felt her heart melting on the inside but refused to let her husband know that he had put a chink in her armour. He was not getting off that easy. "He's yours too," was all she said in response.

Nathan nodded. "I know," he said and then looked at her apologetically, "I just don't know what to do."

"Neither did I," she said, sitting on the couch across from his chair.

"You didn't?" he asked in amazement.

"Not at first," she replied. He seemed to be surprised that she didn't know what she wanted out of the pregnancy but she nodded in confirmation. "I understand what you're feeling because I felt it too. Neither of us planned this but its happening. I've accepted that and you need to figure out how to do the same or you're to lose far more than your career."

He looked at her curiously. "Like what?"

She sighed and a sad expression took hold of her face. "Your family," Haley replied.

His eyes widened in alarm upon catching her meaning. "You would leave me?"

A tear trickled down her face as she confirmed his fear with a reluctant nod.

He felt sick all of a sudden and his devastation must have shown on his face because her lower lip started to quiver like she was about to cry.

Haley took a deep breath and wiped at the tears watering in her eyes. "It'd be the hardest thing in the world but, yes, I would."

His expression hardened. "Threatening me isn't fair."

She shook her head insistently. "It's not a threat; it's a promise."

He took her right hand, placed it in between both of his and gave it a tight squeeze, which made her meet his gaze once again.

She was in misery at the mere thought of living without him and they both knew it, just like they knew that he was terrified of losing her.

"We need each other, Hales," he whispered. He cupped her cheek and shook his head at her. "You wouldn't be able to live without me and I can tell that just the idea of a life without us scares you. You can't seriously expect me to believe that you want to-"

"Of course I don't; I _love_ you," she exclaimed.

He smirked as he leaned in to kiss her; his fear that she might leave him had vanished. But as his lips were about to brush against hers, she pulled away. "But I don't want to raise a child with someone that doesn't want a family with me."

He opened his eyes to study her demeanour.

"And I will not let you turn into your father," she added softly, her voice shaking uneasily all of a sudden.

He immediately grasped the reason behind her sudden timidity and that made him love her even more in that moment. "You did not trap me into anything. I married you long before I _got_ you pregnant and if you think I didn't plan on having kids with you when I proposed, you are dead wrong."

When he looked up, Haley had frozen in place and a small smile was tugging at her lips as tears of joy filled her eyes.

He kissed her hands as he wiped her tears off her face. "I just never thought I'd be having one while I was still a kid."

Haley offered him no mercy. She shrugged and said, "Well, you are. Get used to it."


	5. Chapter 5

_Thanks ames449, naley-obsseshunz-xOx, JamesLover23, krizue, OTH.daddy'sgurl.06, patto85, cali-beach-babe, xSmile, Emily Carol, TutorWife123, lilmonkeygirl31, luvnaley23, chelle2911, soundinmymouth3 and snowbabie for replying. Leave some words and enjoy. Katy_**

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**5.**

"Long time no see," Karen Roe-Hargrove said to the person who just walked in the door that Monday afternoon three weeks later.

"Look who's talking," Haley Scott returned. When Karen frowned, Haley added, "_Mrs_. Hargrove."

Karen's forehead creased with confusion as she watched her former employee slowly slide onto a stool at the counter. "Which big mouth told you?"

"Your son told me," Haley replied, smirking at the outrage that flashed through her eyes. "But only because I noticed Andy's wedding ring in class."

With her due date fast approaching, Karen and Andy went to a Justice of Peace to get married over the weekend, with Lucas and Peyton as their only witnesses.

"I would've invited you, Haley, but we decided to ditch the whole big wedding thing," Karen began to apologize.

"I understand," Haley interjected, raising her left hand giving Karen a view of her own wedding ring.

"I guess you do," Karen said, her voice revealing a small amount of hurt. "You didn't invite me to your wedding either."

Haley rolled her eyes. "But I _did_ invite you to the vow renewal."

"That's true," Karen agreed.

"Congratulations," Haley said.

Karen beamed at her. "Thank you, Haley. I'm so happy right now; I find myself wondering if I'm dreaming at times," she said.

"You deserve to be that happy again," Haley reminded her.

Karen looked at her in appreciation. "I've been telling myself that but sometimes I feel guilty," she confessed.

Haley's eyes widened in surprised. "Guilty?" she repeated.

"For being able to move on after Keith," Karen explained.

"Keith wouldn't want you to spend your whole life mourning him, Karen," Haley told her. Karen looked at her doubtfully. "He'd want you to find happiness again with someone who loves you and we all know how much Andy adores you."

Karen nodded, slightly reassured. Then she regarded Haley carefully. "How are you doing? Lucas told me about your trip to the hospital."

Haley looked up with a mixture of fear and doubt in her eyes. "I feel fine most of the time but I almost lost the baby," she said.

"Oh, honey, that must have been terrifying," she said.

_No kidding_, Haley thought to herself. It seemed that her hormones were kicking in a lot more frequently now. "Yes, it was and I had another scare yesterday," she replied.

"What happened?" Karen asked in concern.

"I had trouble catching my breath. Nathan thought I was going into labour which I said I wasn't but we went to the hospital anyways," Haley said.

"And?" Karen asked.

"I've been ordered to take it easy, as little stress as possible," Haley replied.

"Have you been under a lot of stress?" Karen asked.

Haley nodded slightly. "Things are better with Nathan and me now that we had a talk but we still have a lot ahead of us and then there's school," she said.

"That has always been a major stressor for you, especially when you have tests," Karen remembered.

"I do have a huge philosophy test coming up which was what I was studying for before it happened," Haley admitted.

"You always fretted about tests, Haley, and you always do just fine. Most of the time, you ace them," Karen pointed out.

"I know but I can't help but worry," Haley said.

"Well, you need to stop," Karen said sternly.

"Telling me not to worry about a test is like telling you not to worry about Lucas. It's not something I can control, it's automatic," Haley snapped.

Karen's eyebrows shot up in shock. "I'm sorry?"

"No, _I'm_ sorry," Haley said forcefully. "These hormones are going to be the death of me, I'm sure of it."

"It'll get better," Karen promised.

"I think I have a solution to my problem anyway," Haley stated.

"Well, that's good. Let's hear it," Karen said.

Haley sighed. "I've been thinking about dropping out."

Karen dropped the fork she had in her hand and it clattered to the floor while Karen was staring at Haley in open-mouthed disbelief. "As in out of school?" she asked.

"Yep," Haley replied.

"How long have you been thinking about it?" Karen asked.

"Pretty much ever since I found out I was pregnant," Haley replied.

--

Haley walked into her apartment two days later, dreading the conversation she was about to have with Nathan. It was a conversation she'd been avoiding for as long as possible, definitely after she had already done what she planned to do so he wouldn't be able to talk her out of it.

"Nathan?" Her voice pierced the peaceful silence that Nathan had been enjoying for the past few hours. He enjoyed Wednesday afternoons because his friends were busy with classes and it was his day off. It was his day to do what he wanted, whether he spent his time studying, playing video games or just simply practiced his game at the unusually empty court.

"I'm in the bedroom, Hales," he replied, hoping that his annoyance at being disturbed from his video game didn't show. He did not want to piss his wife off tonight. Wednesday nights were also one of two date nights for him and Haley every week and he was looking forward to laying on the couch with her nestled against him while they pretended to watch a movie.

Her footsteps came closer and closer. "Hey," she said when she entered the room. "I need to talk to you."

He glanced at her. "Is this a pausing kind of conversation or a power-off conversation?"

She grimaced. "Power-off."

He saved his game and then got up to turn off the system. He then rolled up the controller and placed it on the stand directly below the system. He then turned off the television and returned to his spot on the bed.

Haley slowly came forward and cautiously sat down beside him.

If he was relaxed before, he couldn't recall because as soon as he felt Haley shaking beside him, a wave of worry washed over him, completely overtaking any other emotions he might have been feeling before.

"Haley, what's wrong?"

"I did something today," she admitted quietly, her voice almost inaudible because she had her head bent low so she was staring at her hands in her lap instead of looking at him. "Something that I don't think you are going to like."

He reached over and cupped her chin, gently lifting her face up so their gazes were level. "Whatever it is, it can't be that bad," he said.

"Doctor Shaw had a talk with me after you left to call Lucas at the hospital yesterday," she said.

"What did he say?" Nathan asked.

"He said he was worried," Haley replied.

"What do you mean?" Nathan asked.

"He thinks I have too much stress in my life right now and that it's having a negative effect on the baby," she explained.

"You're pregnant. That in and of itself is major stressor," Nathan pointed out. Haley looked at him in confusion. "People are always telling you what you should do to help the baby and what you should avoid and that makes you worry which causes stress."

"It's more than that for me," Haley said.

"So what else did he say?" Nathan asked.

"He said that if I don't do something, I might miscarry," Haley said, her voice quivering now. Nathan put a supporting arm around her, hugging her to him. "I can't lose this baby. I love him too much."

Nathan kissed her on the forehead. "You are not going to have a miscarriage," he promised her.

"How do you know?" she asked, looking at him curiously.

"Your mother delivered six babies and they all turned out healthy. Your three sisters have all been pregnant more than once and their kids turned out fine. Taylor just gave birth to twins," Nathan pointed out. "This is one situation where the fact that your family is very fertile actually works in your favour."

Out of reflex to whenever someone mocked her family, she glared at him warningly. "Their pregnancies were not high-risk. Not one of them passed out because something was wrong. I've passed out _twice_," she reminded him.

He nodded. "Worrying isn't helping anything. You need to stop," he said.

She leaned closer to him. "I'm scared," she admitted.

"I will take care of you, Hales," he promised.

Haley pulled away from him and stared at him. "You can't be here to watch me 24/7, Nathan. You have practices, games _and_ classes that you need to focus on," she said.

"Then I'll take a break from school so I can be here while you're pregnant," Nathan said.

"No," Haley said firmly.

"Why not?" he asked.

"Because I already have," she said before she realized what she was doing.

Nathan looked at her in disbelief. "You dropped out of school?" he asked, his voice rising in angry disappointment.

"Yes, I did," Haley replied.

"Why would you do something like that without talking to me first?" Nathan asked.

"Because I didn't want you to talk me out of it and it was my decision to make," Haley replied.

Nathan shook his head at her forcefully. "We're married, Haley, and I thought that meant we were supposed to make big decisions together, not by ourselves and then just spring it on the other," he said.

Haley could recall saying that countless times herself. It was funny how often their roles were reversed nowadays. "Says the one who holds the record for making decisions on his own and then just expects me to live with it," she retorted in an equally angry voice as her husband.

"What decisions have I made without you?" he asked dumbly. Did he really want to open _that_ door?

"Plenty," she replied.

"Give me some examples," he said.

"When you bought me that keyboard," Haley said immediately. It was the first example that came to mind. Buying her that keyboard had resulted in their first fight as a married couple.

Nathan scoffed. "I bought that as a gift for you," he reminded her.

"Yeah, you bought me a gift with _our_ money that we were saving to buy a car with and _then_ you smashed the damn thing while I was on tour," she shot back.

"That happened a long time ago and you accepted the keyboard and forgave me," he said.

She didn't really agree that it didn't count but it had been a long time ago. "Okay, fine. How about the time you went behind my back and hired Chris to work with me?"

"I did that for _you_ because Brooke told me that your music was suffering," he replied.

"And you're trying to tell me that you weren't testing my affections as well?" she asked, raising a doubtful eyebrow at him.

"Of course not," he exclaimed.

"Then why did you tell me that it was my chance to prove that you could trust me again?" Haley asked. Nathan looked at her in disbelief. "I believe you said something along the lines of, 'If you work with Chris and end up having feelings for him again, I guess I'll have my answer.'"

"We were separated then, Haley, and I was trying to help you out. And bulletin: you did leave me to go on tour so it wasn't like I didn't have reasons not to trust you," Nathan replied.

She couldn't argue with that.

"I take it by your silence that you're not going to press that one," he said, smirking.

"Don't be funny," Haley snapped.

He nodded. "You can't think of a time where I made a decision without talking to you that I didn't do for you, can you?"

Haley looked at him and shook her head sadly. "When you accepted that scholarship to Duke," she replied.

He closed his eyes in regret. "Oh, yeah," he remembered.

During their senior year but after they had already renewed their vows, they were still deciding what college they would go to together. Haley had wanted to go to Stanford while Nathan was dying to go to Duke.

They had agreed to talk it out and decide which one was best for them together. There had been a short time where there was a rumour around school and town that Haley was pregnant when she really wasn't and Nathan didn't believe her when she told him she wasn't so she had become furious with him when he demanded she take a pregnancy test at the doctor's to prove to him that she really wasn't instead of just trusting her.

Her father-in-law had taken full advantage of the tension between the couple. Dan had manipulated Nathan into thinking that if she really loved him; she would put her dreams aside and follow him to Duke.

So he had called Coach K at Duke and accepted the scholarship for himself, announcing his decision at a press conference which was how Haley had found out about it. And when the people at Stanford had found out about, they reneged their offer of a basketball scholarship for Nathan which meant Haley couldn't go there because it would mean being without Nathan.

Haley just sighed. "I'm only doing this because it's what's best for the baby," she said.

"You don't know that you'll miscarry if you stay in school," he told her.

"I don't want to take any chances and I'd have to drop out eventually, Nathan. I'm just doing it sooner now," Haley said.

"I don't want you to have regrets, Hales," Nathan said.

"Well, then I am doing the right thing, Nathan. If I lost this baby, I would always regret not dropping out earlier and I plan to be mother to our son," Haley replied.

He smirked. "You're going to make a great mom."

"I hope so," she said.

"Are you sure this is what you really want?" he asked.

She nodded. "College will always be there and I could do some correspondence once the baby's born," Haley replied.

--

"Congratulations on the promotion, Hales," Peyton said as she and Lucas came into the apartment.

"Thanks, Peyton," Haley replied, hugging the blonde.

"I can't believe my mom made you her business partner," Lucas said.

"Why not? Haley's great with accounting stuff and with your mom giving her extra cooking lessons, she's going to make an even better cook," Nathan replied.

"No, I mean I can't believe she finally replaced Deb," Lucas said.

"Deb is a train wreck," Peyton pointed out and flashed an apologetic smile in Nathan's direction.

"You're not saying anything that isn't true, Peyton," Nathan said, shrugging off the apology. But unlike so many people, Haley could always see right through his tough façade.

"She's still your mom," Haley interrupted, glaring at Peyton. "She's part of our family and we don't turn our backs on family."

Nathan didn't reveal any sign of appreciation on his face which sparked Haley's temper but then he reached over and took her hand in his, squeezing it thankfully.

"So are there any other perk besides becoming a kick-ass cook?" Peyton asked.

Haley smirked. "It comes with one hell of a raise and a built-in daycare," she said, repeating Karen's sales pitch.

"My old crib won't fit hold both of your babies," Lucas said.

"We managed to find mine up in the attic of the house," Nathan said.

There was a knock on the door and Haley got up to answer it. "I can answer the door," she declared before Nathan had a chance to argue with her.

Giggling to herself at the expression on his face, she opened the door without first checking who it was.

"Surprise!"

Haley stared at the brunette in shock. "Brooke, you're here!"

"Yes, I am, Pregger," Brooke replied.

"For how long?" Haley asked.

"For good," Brooke smiled.

Haley looked at her in disbelief.

"You're speechless," Brooke squealed, walking in and hugging her.

"Hales, who is it?" Peyton called from the living room.


	6. Chapter 6

**6.**

"Haley, you're positively glowing!" Brooke gushed while still hugging Haley. When she pulled away, Brooke gave her yet another once-over. "Being pregnant definitely agrees with you."

Haley chuckled as she rolled her eyes at the praise that she had come to accept as just another thing she'd suffer through while being pregnant. If there was one thing she hated most, it was being given insincere compliments in her "delicate condition" as one person she bumped into on an elevator had said.

"Tell that to him," Haley said as she touched her stomach where her son was growing affectionately.

A puzzled expression took hold of her friend's face. "You're having a boy," Brooke realized after a few seconds.

"For God sakes, Haley!" Peyton exclaimed from the living room. "Who is that damn door?"

Brooke's expression immediately darkened at the sound of her former friend's voice. "What is she doing here so late?"

"We're celebrating," Haley replied awkwardly and then she heard the footsteps of someone entering the hallway.

"Brooke," Peyton declared and shot Haley an inquiring look.

"What are you celebrating?" Brooke asked, purposely ignoring Peyton's questioning gaze and deliberately turning her head so that the only person she was looking at was Haley.

Sometimes girls could be so petty.

"Real mature," Peyton remarked as she turned on her heal and headed back to the living room.

"My promotion," Haley finally replied as she began to tug Brooke to the living room with her.

Nathan noticed Brooke's presence in the room before Peyton and Lucas saw her. "Hey, Brooke, what are you doing here?" he asked, looking at Haley questioningly.

"I transferred to Duke University," Brooke replied, looking at Lucas' hand holding Peyton's hand close to his heart and kissing it. "I wanted to come back home."

"What about that internship in California Haley told me about?" Nathan asked, standing up to allow Haley to sit back down in her seat and then sat back down beside her.

"My professor managed to get me one out here before I left," Brooke replied.

"But that sounded like such an opportunity," Haley commented.

"I missed it here. L.A. was so noisy," Brooke started to explain.

"Does Duke even have a fashion program?" Peyton asked, scrunching her eyebrows curiously because she had never heard of one.

"Would I have transferred if they didn't?" Brooke shot back.

Peyton rolled her eyes and then turned to face Haley, mimicking Brooke's earlier actions. "I still can't believe you're not going to be in class with me," she pouted, but couldn't hold it for long as she started giggling at the annoyed expression that crossed Haley's face.

"Like the two of you would miss me. I'm surprised you noticed we were in the same class considering you spend most of it stealing glances at each other and passing notes," Haley replied, revelling in the redness that took hold of both Lucas and Peyton's faces.

"What class do you three all have in common?" Brooke asked, making no remark about the fact that Lucas and Peyton were now together which surprised Haley. Maybe she had gained some maturity in California.

"Economics," Lucas replied brightly. "Welcome home, Brooke."

Brooke smiled warmly at him. "Thanks, Luke," she said and then turned to look at Haley and Nathan who both had their one of their hands resting on her stomach. "It's great to be home."

"There is nothing here," Haley said as she glanced into the refrigerator the next morning while her husband sat at the table eating his favourite cereal, Cap'n Crunch.

"We went grocery shopping two days ago," Nathan replied as he stuffed another spoonful in his mouth.

Haley put her hands on her hips and shook her head. "Nothing," she said as a look of irritation crossed her features.

"Have some cereal," Nathan suggested.

Her nose crinkled in disgust at the notion. "No way," she said.

"Haley, you have to eat something," Nathan said.

"I know that," Haley said, coming over to sit down beside him. "Maybe you could go to the store and pick something up for me."

Nathan put his spoon down and looked at her incredulously. "Like what?" he asked.

"I don't know," Haley replied.

Nathan tried not to smile but failed. "Hales, if you want me to go to the store for you, I will, but only if you tell me what you want. No way is there going to be a repeat of last Tuesday."

The Tuesday in question had started out very much like the present Thursday morning when the couple had finally decided to have some breakfast only Haley couldn't decide on anything to eat.

So, Nathan, being the dutiful husband offered to go get her some thing to eat and Haley had thanked him for volunteering. He went out and brought back a store-made salad from the store and presented it to her. Haley had taken one look at the salad and pouted, saying that he had gotten the wrong thing.

"Oh, like it's my fault you bought a salad with the wrong kind of dressing," Haley replied.

"Ranch dressing is awesome," Nathan said defensively.

"Pfft," Haley snorted. "Italian and Catalina are the only two I like for future reference."

"Aren't pregnant women supposed to have weird cravings?" Nathan asked.

Haley raised an eyebrow at him as a warning. "Excuse me?"

"My point is that if you can like a poutine during your pregnancy when before you couldn't even look at one, how do you know you wouldn't like Ranch dressing?" Nathan asked.

"I just know," Haley replied.

"You're just being stubborn," Nathan realized.

"I am not, I hate Ranch," Haley argued.

"How about I go get a Caesar salad?" Nathan suggested.

Haley considered this for a minute. "That I will eat," she replied.

He smiled. "Just let me finish my cereal."

"You're going to eat that in front of me when you know I'm hungry?" Haley asked.

"I just put the milk on it, Hales. If I don't eat it now, it'll get soggy," Nathan replied.

"Then I'll just go to the store by myself," Haley decided, putting the milk away for Nathan and started to walk out of the room to go change but as soon as she reached the threshold, he stopped her.

"I don't want you going alone," he said.

Haley turned around and glared at him. "You were going to."

"That's different," he said.

Her eyes narrowed and she put her hands on her hips. "So, what are you saying, that I can't go out by myself in broad daylight now because I'm a girl?" she asked.

"No, you can't go out alone because you're pregnant," Nathan replied.

Haley's eyes bulged. "What?" she exclaimed.

"What if something goes wrong and I'm not there?" he asked, his gaze desperately pleading with her not to go.

She nodded. "Okay, I won't go."

He pulled her closer, kissed the top of her head before wrapping her in his arms. "Thank you. I'll hurry up and finish my cereal. Then I'll go get you something," he said.

"We'll both go," she said.

Nathan smiled at the idea. "We should get some foods that you really love so this won't happen again," he joked.

A shrill ring of one of their cell phones interrupted their moment and Haley groaned when she realized that the cell phone was hers. "What now?" she grumbled on her way down the hall to snatch her cell phone up and answer it.

"Hello?" she asked, hoping her voice sounded kind, not grouchy.

"Hey, Haley," Brooke's chipper voice came through the phone.

"What's up, Brooke?" Haley asked.

"Well, I was wondering if you wanted to go shopping for clothes in an hour or so," Brooke said.

She bit her lip in regret. "Uh, I already have plans to shop," Haley replied.

"Then I'll just tag along," Brooke interrupted, not realizing Haley wasn't finished.

"Peyton wanted me to help her find some stuff."

Silence was the only thing to be heard on Brooke's end and for some reason; it seemed far more intimidating than if Brooke had thrown a fit.

"Brooke?" Haley called for her friend uncertainly. "Are you there?"

"Yeah," Brooke replied softly.

"You and I can go shopping tomorrow after I get off work if you want," Haley suggested.

"No, we can't actually. I have two classes tomorrow," she said.

"Do you want to come with me and Peyton?" Haley asked carefully.

Silence again.

Brooke sighed. "Um, yeah, I guess if it's okay with Peyton," she said.

When Haley hung up the phone with Peyton, she realized Nathan was staring at her intently.

"What?" she asked.

Nathan took her hand in his. "I know you want everyone to get along, Hales, but are you sure it's a good idea putting the two of them together?"

"I'll be there to make sure there's no bloodshed," Haley replied.

Nathan chuckled. "I thought you hated being a referee," he said.

"Peyton and Brooke are both my friends. I need to make it clear to them that I will not be choosing sides," Haley replied. "They need to realize that if they want to hang out with me, they're going to have to at least be civil because I will not phase out either one of them."

"You're such a little peace maker," Nathan said.

"I won't be caught in the middle anymore. The sooner they realize that, the better off they'll be," Haley explained.

"I get it. I don't want you to get your hopes up. Brooke and Peyton were best friends for a long time and there's been a lot of betrayal on both their parts," Nathan said.

"And I can't expect them to work things out overnight," Haley finished for him, rolling her eyes at the fact that he was actually right.

"I guess this means our grocery shopping trip is postponed," Nathan said.

Haley nodded softly and grabbed a bite of his cereal. "Mm, that's good," she said after she swallowed the bite.

Nathan stared at her incredulously. "Cereal was the first thing I suggested," he said, outraged.

"I didn't think you meant your cereal," Haley said.

"There is no such thing as _my_ cereal, Haley. Everything that is mine is yours," Nathan said. At this, Haley raised an eyebrow as she had thought of something to test his theory. "Within reason," he added quickly.

"Ditto," she said and pressed her lips to his in what was supposed to be a quick kiss. But at the contact, Nathan wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her down so she was sitting in his lap and then deepened the kiss.

Haley soon found herself snaking her arms around his neck.

He groaned when she started to pull away. "I have to get dressed, babe," she explained in between kisses.

"In a few minutes," he said.

Two hours later, Haley, Brooke and Peyton were entering the third store on their shopping trip.

"Finally, clothes that I can fit in," Haley exclaimed when she found the maternity section.

"Oh, sorry, Hales, I guess I didn't figure that into the equation when I went over the list of stores to check out," Peyton said, finally finding where Haley had run off to.

"I've known you were pregnant for like two months now and it's still weird," Brooke said.

"That's because you've been in California, not here, to deal with all the drama that came along with it," Peyton said, smiling at the glare that was thrown her way from Haley.

"What drama?" Brooke asked, looking at Haley curiously.

"Nothing," Haley said, ignoring her two friends.

"Well, when Nathan first found out about her being preggers, he flipped out," Peyton said, giggling when she heard the frustrated groan that came from behind one of the clothing racks, knowing it was actually Haley.

"How did he flip out?" Brooke asked.

"She won't tell me," Peyton replied.

"Hales?" Brooke called out, blatantly ignoring Peyton's response.

"None of your damn business," came the gruff reply.

"Oh, come on, you can tell me," Brooke said. "I won't tell anyone, I swear."

Haley started laughing. "You can't keep a secret to save your life, Brooke Davis, so don't even try that for a second."

"I kept the little arrangement I had with Felix hidden for so long," Brooke said.

Haley finally materialized from the clothing racks with three shirts draped across her arms, along with a pair of jeans and Capri's. "No, you only think you did," she said.

Brooke widened her eyes in shock at Haley. "You knew?"

Haley chuckled. "Uh, yeah, you two weren't as covert as you'd like to think."

"I didn't know," Peyton admitted.

"You were dealing with other things at the time," Haley said, referring to her heartache over the first time Jake had left town to keep his daughter away from Nikki.

Brooke's expression turned dark. "Are you talking about Lucas or Jake?"

Haley looked at her. "Jake," she said. "I'm going to go try these on." And she disappeared into the fitting rooms.

"You know that how hurt I was when he left town," Peyton said.

"Which time?" Brooke asked.

"Both times. He meant a lot to me," Peyton replied.

"Well, excuse me for being a little confused, Peyton," Brooke drawled out in a tone that was anything but apologetic. "You've had so many boys over the past few years, not counting your friend's own husband."

"Nathan and I started dating long before he met Haley and we broke up soon afterwards," Peyton reminded her.

"And then it was my boyfriend," Brooke continued.

"Whom you went after even though you knew I had feelings for him," Peyton said.

"I gave you every opportunity to snag him first, Peyton, but you were constantly denying having any feelings for him whatsoever," Brooke said.

"Why are you doing this?" Peyton asked.

"Because I'm tired of keeping up appearances. I think it's time we got something out there," Brooke said.

"What, like the reason you're really here?" Peyton asked, smirking when shock passed through Brooke's eyes. "Yeah, that's right, I don't buy your flimsy excuse."

"I missed home," Brooke said.

"Maybe you do but that's not the reason you came back and we both know it," Peyton said.

"And what do you think you know?" Brooke asked.

"I'm onto you, Brooke," Peyton said, coming closer, "I see the way you've been looking at him. You regret dumping him when you found out about the kiss and now you want him back."

"Fine, I'll admit it. I want my boyfriend back," Brooke said.

"He's my boyfriend now," Peyton said.

"And how'd you get him, Peyton?" Brooke retorted.

"What are you talking about?" Peyton asked.

"You got him when I left town because the only reason Lucas would ever look at you that way is if I was already gone," Brooke said.

"That's not true," Peyton said dismissively.

"Well, I'm back now and I don't intend to walk away again. I'm not giving up without a fight," Brooke said.

Peyton chuckled. "I could take you any day of the week, Brooke," she said.

"I wasn't talking about a knock-down, drag out," Brooke said, grabbing the clothes that she had picked out of the cart. "I'm talking about going up to Lucas and telling him I to try again. And he will not turn me away."

Then she marched to the cashier and paid for the clothes, immediately storming out of the store when she received her merchandise in two shopping bags.

"Let the games begin," Peyton muttered.

Then Haley finally came back from the fitting room. "The tops fit me. The jeans don't but the Capris do. I'm just going to grab the next size for the jeans, try them on and we can go to the next store on your list," she said, putting the shirts and Capris in the cart.

"Okay," Peyton said absentmindedly; her attention still focused on the exit Brooke had passed through not two minutes before.

"Uh, Peyton, where is Brooke?" Haley asked, finally noticing the brunette's absence when she returned with the larger pair of jeans.

"She left," Peyton replied.

"Where'd she go?" Haley asked.

"Probably straight to Lucas," Peyton said miserably.


	7. Chapter 7

**7.**

"_Peyton, what are you doing here?" Haley asked when she opened the door in the middle of the night. _

"_He chose, Brooke, Hales," she sobbed. _

"_What are you talking about?" Haley asked, pulling her into a hug and then walking into the apartment. They sat down on the couch together._

"_Hales, is everything okay?" Nathan asked from the bedroom door, exhaustion evident in his voice.  
_

"_I'm sorry," Peyton said, watching Nathan taking a few steps closer to them. She started to stand up to leave. "I shouldn't have come." _

"_Don't be silly," Haley said, pulling her back down to sit. "Just hold on a second." _

_She stood up and walked over to Nathan. "Something happened with her and Luke," Haley explained.  
_

"_Is she okay?" Nathan asked, peering over Haley's shoulder at Peyton curiously._

"_No, but you should go back to bed and I'll be there soon," Haley said. _

"_Okay," he said, hugging her and walking back into the room. _

_Haley returned to the living room and sat down. "Now, what do you mean he chose Brooke?" _

"_Well, Brooke went to see him after she left us at the mall," Peyton started to explain. "She told him that she made a mistake when she broke up with him and left town; she overreacted about the kiss and that she came back to try again." _

"_And Lucas said he would?" Haley asked, her eyes bulging with disbelief.  
_

_Peyton's face crumpled again as she nodded. "He told me that it was over between us." _

"_I can't believe he would do that," Haley said, shaking her head in disappointment at her best friend._

"_Well, he did," Peyton snapped. _

"_I'm so sorry," Haley said putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Do you want to stay here tonight?" _

"_No, no, I can't stay here," Peyton said. _

"_Peyton, it's fine if you don't want to be alone tonight," Haley assured her._

"_No, Haley, I'm leaving Tree Hill," she corrected. _

It had been almost two months since Peyton had left Tree Hill and transferred to NYU in New York City, leaving a now struggling TRIC behind her.

Karen had asked Haley to take over management of the nightclub and do anything she could think of- as long as it was legal- to boost the club's revenue. So Haley had called in a long overdue favour from former tour mate Chris Keller.

Keller was sitting on the stage waiting for her to tell him what he was doing there. "Haley?" he called to the pregnant brunette that was now chatting with Mouth McFadden about the sound system.

Haley turned around, glancing around for the person that had called her name. When her eyes rested on a smiling and waving Chris, beckoning him over to him, annoyance crept up her spine. "I'm not a dog," she snapped as she waddled over.

"No, you're not. Check you out: a _pregnant_ club manager," Chris drawled.

"I'm filling in until a replacement can be found," Haley corrected.

"I thought there already was a manager," Chris said.

"There was but she left town rather suddenly and now we're looking for a replacement," Haley explained cryptically.

Chris looked at her in surprise. "Curly split?" His eyebrows were arched up in interest.

"_Peyton_ left town to go to school in New York," she replied.

"Aha, so that explains why you're filling in for your friend but it doesn't explain why you called me," Chris said.

"I'm cashing in on the favour you owe me," Haley announced.

"I don't owe you any favours," Chris said.

"Oh, yes, you do or have you forgotten that jam I got you out of with the cops and that underage girl from the tour?" she asked, folding her arms across her chest.

Chris rolled his eyes. "What do you want?"

"I want you to perform here on the weekend, starting Friday and ending Monday," Haley replied.

"I performed here when I was just starting out," he said. He held up his second album to show her. "I just released my sophomore album and am about to go on tour. Chris Keller does not go backwards."

"Well, he better rethink his position if he wants to make it to that tour," Haley countered.

"You don't seriously think you're going to force me to return," Chris said.

"TRIC isn't doing very well since Peyton left. I need something for publicity and people here seem to really like your music," Haley replied.

"Do they now?" Chris perked up.

"No accounting for taste," Haley remarked.

"You used to think I was a good singer," Chris reminded her.

"And I still do but I don't see you winning any personality awards in the future," Haley said.

"How much do I get paid?" he asked.

"Eight bucks a show," Haley replied.

His jaw dropped. "That's all?" he asked.

"Did I mention that this is a favour and not a gig?" Haley walked closer to him. "I'm asking you to play here because I have to, not because I want to."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Chris asked.

"You're lucky I'm paying you at all," Haley replied.

Chris nodded in understanding. "All right, I'll take it," he said.

"We have some rules to go over before we even start talking about your set," Haley said.

"There weren't any rules last time I was here apart from no drugs and prostitutes," he said.

"You will not walk off stage before or during your performance," Haley began, ignoring his criticism of her management skills. "You will not bring drugs into the club or prostitutes. You will not pester my husband or Brooke."

"Anything else?" Chris asked disinterestedly.

Haley grinned mischievously. "You will play requests," she said.

His face fell. "Oh, no," he begged while shaking his head at her.

Haley nodded at him. "Oh, yes," she confirmed.

"Come on, Haley," he pleaded.

"You're doing it," she ordered and started to walk away.

"Can't we talk about this?" he asked.

"No!" she called back.

An hour later, Nathan walked into the club that his wife was now managing and sat down on the stage, waiting for her to come see him about the message she had left him.

"Hey, babe, I'll be at TRIC and I need to talk to you about something… Don't freak out but Chris Keller will probably be there because I asked him to perform at the club," is what she had left on their answering machine while he was sleeping in after a big game the night before.

Haley walked out from backstage and her face lit up when she found him on the stage. She walked over and kissed him. "Hey, you're awake."

"Yeah, I was groggy and about to go back to sleep until I got your message," he replied, patting the place on the stage beside him.

"Oh," she said, remaining where she was.

"Talk about a wake-up call," he remarked.

"I know but I didn't want you to freak out if you saw him here or think that I was hiding things from you like before," she explained.

He nodded. "Thanks, I appreciate you telling me but I don't want him to play here," he said, pulling her closer to him.

"Chris is here to perform and that is it," Haley assured him.

"I don't trust him around you," Nathan said, dismissing the notion that performing was the only thing on the punk's mind.

Haley shook her head. "I am fully committed to this family and I will not let anything or anyone take me away," she promised.

"And Chris Keller is not a home wrecker," Chris said, appearing from backstage.

"You broke us up before," Nathan glared at the singer.

"There wasn't a child involved back then, plus I also helped bring the two of you back together," Chris said proudly.

The couple scoffed and Haley got up on stage to help set up the sound system.

"I did!" he insisted.

"You mean like when you kissed Haley at the masquerade party?" Nathan asked.

There was a loud fizzing sound from the speakers as Haley connected the base guitar to the amplifier. "That's right," she said, walking over to Chris, "You did kiss me that night."

Chris smiled in response and took a bow.

Haley punched him in the face much like Nathan had when he found out about the kiss. "Don't ever do that again."

Nathan started laughing as Chris grabbed his nose. "Damn it, Haley, I have to perform tonight!"

"Speaking of, there's more where that came from if you in any way try to screw me over like you did to Peyton the first time you were here at the All Ages night," she said.

"That was to get you onstage, you crazy woman!" Chris exclaimed.

"You still made a fool out of her in front of everyone and I will not let you do the same to me," she said.

"I wasn't planning on walking off stage," he said.

"Keep it that way," Haley warned and shooed him away from them.


	8. Chapter 8

_Thanks to lilmonkeygirl31, soundinmymouth3, sfinn23, Emily Carol, chelle2911, elleisforlovee, luvnaley23, snowbabie, LaFilmeMichelle, gordonfan1, HJS-NS-23, antsB, bellasmomma, ell6ange and naley4ever323 for replying. _

* * *

**8.**

Haley was sitting down at the kitchen counter with a spiral notebook spread out, writing down male names from hers and Nathan's family that she could remember.

She started counting how many names she had written down, and when she got to seven, her husband came over and peered over her shoulder.

"What are you doing?" he asked, reading over the names curiously.

"Trying to remember some names from your family," she replied.

"Why?" Nathan asked.

"Just seeing which ones I like and then what sounds good together," Haley replied.

"You mean for the baby?" Nathan asked.

Haley chuckled. "Yes, of course." She wrote another one down.

"You know, we have time until we have to pick out a name," Nathan said.

"You're picking out a name?" Brooke asked from where she was sitting on the couch with Lucas, turning away from the television program they had on.

"Just seeing what our options are," Haley replied.

"Why are you using names from your family?" Brooke asked.

"That's what she wants," Nathan replied.

"I think you should come up with a name by yourselves, something unique," Brooke replied.

Nathan shook his head. "Oh, boy, here we go," he said, remembering an argument Haley had gotten into with a couple at their Lamaze class about the very same topic. The couple had chosen to name their twin daughters Pretty and Perfect.

Haley glared at Brooke in annoyance as she propped her chin up on her palm and gave Brooke a sarcastic smile. "What, you mean like Pretty?"

Brooke started to respond.

"Or how about something like Perfect?" Haley continued.

"Okay, that's just weird," Brooke commented.

"Exactly," Haley agreed. "I want a traditional name for our son."

"What do you have so far?" Lucas asked.

Haley turned back to the notebook and started reading off the names. "Let's see, there's Royal, Keith, Daniel, Alan, Robert, Lucas, Eugene…"

"Eugene?" Nathan repeated questioningly.

"Luke's middle name," Haley replied simply.

Nathan looked at his brother in disbelief and then started laughing. "Oh, man, that sucks."

Brooke turned to her boyfriend with an expression that showed she was trying not to laugh. "Is it really?" she asked.

Lucas lowered his head in embarrassment. "Yes," he finally admitted.

Royal was Nathan and Lucas' grandfather's name. Alan was Keith's middle name and Robert was Dan's middle name.

"I don't want to call our son Junior so naming him after you is out of the question," Haley explained.

Nathan nodded in agreement.

"Keith is my favourite. What do you think?" she asked.

"It's a fine middle name," Nathan replied.

"We're picking out a first name," Haley reminded him.

"We can't use that as a first name, that's Lucas' right," Nathan explained.

Haley looked at Lucas apologetically. "That's true. You should get to name your son after him," she said.

"Thanks, guys," Lucas said, looking relaxed now.

"How about we name him after you?" Nathan suggested.

His wife looked at him in disbelief. "You want to name a boy Haley? There are a lot of unisex names out there but that isn't one."

Nathan started shaking his head at her. "I want to name him James, Haley."

"Oh, that's so sweet!" Brooke exclaimed.

Haley nodded in agreement. "My dad is going to be thrilled."

"Why?" Lucas asked, looking confused.

"I'm going to tell him we're naming the baby after him," she replied.

"Except that we're naming him after you," Nathan pointed out.

"Him too. His first name is James, remember?" Haley said.

"We're still naming him James because it is your maiden name, not because of him, first or last name," Nathan replied.

Haley shrugged. "Fine with me but he doesn't need to know that."

"You're going to lie to your father?" Brooke gasped, shaking her head in disappointment. "Haley James Scott!"

The brothers laughed while Haley just looked at her strangely.

"It's just Scott now, Brooke," Haley corrected her. Her name was no longer hyphenated; she had stopped using two last names after high school.

"You're naming the baby James Alan Scott?" Karen asked two days later when she walked into the café to visit and see how things were going.

Haley's features scrunched up with confusion. "Who told you that?" she asked, wondering how Karen knew that when Nathan hadn't even told his mother yet, nor had they told her parents.

"Lucas mentioned it when he and Brooke visited yesterday," Karen replied.

"Oh, okay. Yeah, we are," Haley confirmed, continuing to wipe down the counter.

It was ten minutes to closing time and she was getting a head start on the cleaning so she would be able to get home sooner.

"I love that name," Karen said, smiling.

"I do too," Haley said.

"Haley, what's wrong?" Karen asked, regarding her carefully.

"What makes you think anything's wrong?" Haley asked, not bothering to look up.

"Because you've been wiping that spot on the counter since I walked in," Karen replied, smiling when Haley looked up at her and shook her head in annoyance because she realized that she had been doing that.

"I don't know," Haley replied unconvincingly.

"Are you sure?" Karen asked.

Haley threw the rag down on the counter forcefully. "It's becoming real," she said.

"What?" Karen asked.

"This whole thing," she replied, gesturing to her pregnant belly.

"Didn't you already realize this?" Karen asked.

"Yes, but now it's really _real_. Becoming a mother, having a son was always far away but now that we picked out a name," Haley began to explain.

"The baby has a name so you're freaking out because you don't have as much time as you thought you did," Karen said, nodding in understanding, remembering the time she had realized the same thing while she was pregnant with Lucas.

"Yeah, and now I'm freaking out," Haley said.

"Honey, you're going to be fine," Karen assured her.

Haley looked at her in disbelief. "Are you kidding?" she demanded, sitting down at the chair she had placed behind the counter for herself. "I'm going to be a disaster as a mom."

"That's not true," Karen said dismissively.

"Karen, you've actually met my family so please, let's not pretend that they're not crazy," Haley replied, shaking her head. "Taylor is going to be my son's aunt. That alone should get Child Protective Services on my back."

Karen chuckled at her joke. "But your mom is a great role model."

"My mom is a kook!" Haley exclaimed.

"She's definitely unique, I'll give you that but she is a great mom," Karen replied.

"Yeah, I guess," Haley agreed.

"She is, Haley. Lydia raised all six of you," Karen reminded her.

"Yeah," Haley said.

"And most of you turned out fine," Karen added.

"That's true," Haley agreed.

"Not to mention, that you are a great person." Karen smiled at her kindly. "Just look at the effect having you in his life had on Nathan."

Haley frowned. "Nathan was never a monster," she said defensively.

Karen smirked. "That's one of the best things about you," she said.

"What?" Haley asked.

"Nathan and your son will always have someone in their life ready to rise to their defence no matter what," Karen replied.

"Thanks, Karen," Haley said.

"Anytime," Karen said with a wink.

Fifteen minutes later, Haley had finished up the cleaning and was ready to leave. "There's Nathan," she said when she saw the car pull up.

"Great," Karen said, hugging her goodbye.

Haley felt something wet on her and shuddered as she pulled away. "Was that your water breaking?" she asked.

Karen smiled happily. "I'm pretty sure it was."

"Great because I'm not that reassured," Haley said, referring to the fact that she was not ready to have her baby at that exact moment.

"I guess I better get to the hospital," Karen remarked.

"Nathan and I will take you," Haley said, reaching in her purse to pull out her cell phone, instantly pressing one and send, Nathan was number one on her speed dial.

"Hey, babe, what's up?" Nathan asked, watching his wife through the window in the café.

"You need to help me get Karen into our car," she said.

"Why?" Nathan asked, not realizing he was giving Karen a ride home.

"We're bringing her to the hospital," Haley replied.

"What happened?" Nathan asked, worried about his brother's mom.

"Her water broke," Haley replied simply.

"You mean she's in labour?" Nathan asked.

"Yep," Haley replied and then hung up.


	9. Chapter 9

**9.**

After driving Karen to the hospital, speeding as much as they could without being pulled over by the three police cars they passed on the way to the hospital, they were following the doctors and nurses up to the maternity ward.

A few minutes later, Haley had her cell phone out and was dialling Andy Hargrove's number.

"Hello?" a groggy voice asked after the fifth ring.

"Andy, hey, it's Haley," Haley said quickly.

"Haley, it's late, why are you calling at this hour?" Andy asked sleepily.

"Uh, I'm with Karen at the hospital," Haley said slowly.

"What's wrong?" Andy asked in alarm, all trace of sleep from his voice gone as worry took over.

"Nothing's _wrong_," Haley replied, shaking her head at her idiocy. She should've known that telling him that his wife was in the hospital would illicit that type of reaction from him. "Karen's in labour."

"Labour?" Andy exclaimed.

"Yeah, so, you might want to get down here before you miss the whole thing," Haley replied.

"I'm on my way," he said and then hung up without waiting for a response from her.

Haley pulled the phone back a little to glance at the screen and noted that the call had been ended. She shook her head in amusement and then dialled another number.

"Hello?" Brooke answered the phone.

"Brooke, why are you answering Luke's phone?" Haley asked, a little unnerved by the fact that it wasn't Lucas who answered.

"Uh, Luke's asleep right now," Brooke replied, glancing at her sleeping boyfriend on the bed beside her. She was sitting up working on designs for her class the next day that she had to show her teacher.

"Well, wake him up and put him on, please," Haley said.

"What's going on, Haley?" Brooke asked.

"Uh, just put him on. He'll fill you in," Haley replied.

About three minutes later, hearing Brooke giggling about something her boyfriend had said, Lucas finally took the phone from her. "Haley?"

"Hey, Luke, you need to get down to the hospital now. Your mom's in labour," Haley replied, talking really fast once again.

"All right," and then he hung up.

Haley stared at the phone in disbelief. "Whatever happened to saying goodbye?" she asked of the inanimate object.

Four hours later, Karen welcomed hers and Keith's daughter Maya Rose Scott into the world, and Andy fell in love with his stepdaughter.

Maya Scott had her mother's porcelain complexion and black hair but her eyes were the same shade of brown as her father's.

"She's gorgeous, Karen," Haley said, smiling brightly at her best friend's mother.

"Thank you, Haley," Karen said.

Giving the family time to get to know each other, Nathan and Haley wandered out of Karen's hospital room to a deserted hall in the maternity wing.

Nathan's arms came around her waist and he nuzzled her neck.

Haley leaned back against him and kissed his cheek as soon as the opportunity presented itself.

"Are you ready for that?" Nathan asked, a smile tugging at his lips.

A shudder ran through Haley as she recalled hearing Karen's painful screams while she was in labour.

"I can't wait to meet our son but am I ready to give birth to him?" Haley replied.

Nathan looked at her and nodded.

Haley shook her head. "Not so much."

His arms tightened against her momentarily. "You'll do fine when it's your turn," he assured her.

Haley turned around in his embrace and locked her arms around his neck. "Just so you know, I plan to be medicated. None of that being aware crap for this one," she said, chuckling at the expression of disbelief that took hold of her husband's face.

"Some women choose not to have the epidural?" he asked.

Haley nodded. "I think they regret it later though," she said.

"Good thing I married a smart woman then," he joked, leaning down to kiss her.

Haley gleefully allowed him full access to her mouth and never one to waste an invitation, Nathan darted his tongue into her mouth and after a minute or two of exploring, he started to massage her tongue.

He groaned when she pushed herself harder against him and when he tightened his own arms around her, he felt it.

He pulled away and stared at her stomach in disbelief. "Did you feel that?" he asked, staring at her in wonder.

Her smile was brilliant as she felt another pop within her abdomen. "I did and I also felt the one after it," she said, chuckling as she winced against another kick from her unborn son.

"He's kicking," Nathan concluded, coming closer again.

Haley took his hand and pressed it to her abdomen. "Yes, he is," she replied.

"Wow, that is amazing," Nathan remarked as he felt one kick after the other, in total three kicks against his wife's stomach.

"It _was_ amazing but now it's just annoying," Haley said, wincing yet again.

He looked at her in amusement. "You're carrying a Scott in there. Were you really expecting him not to be an active one?" he asked.

Haley rolled her eyes. "He's definitely going to take after his father," she said.

"He'll be smart like his mom," Nathan added.

Haley cocked her head to the side as she studied his serious expression. "Don't say crap like that. You are smart too," she scolded him.

"But _you_ are a genius," Nathan smirked.

"Well, I can't argue with that," she said smugly, smiling at the mischievous look in his eyes at her comment.

"Come on, we better get back," he said as he took hold of her hand and started to walk away.

"Later," Haley pouted, pulling him back to her.

"All right," he said easily.

An hour later, they returned to Karen's hospital to find that Karen had fallen asleep as had Andy and Lucas was sitting in a chair in the furthest corner from them, holding his baby sister.

Haley walked in ahead of Nathan and put her arm on his shoulder. "Where's Brooke?" she asked.

"Oh, I sent her home to get some sleep for that presentation she has tomorrow," Lucas said.

"You mean, in a few hours," Haley corrected him, showing him her watch that indicated it was already six in the morning.

"Wow," Lucas commented and then turned his attention back to Maya.

"How does it feel to be a big brother?" Haley asked, peering at the infant.

"Amazing, I feel so protective of her already," Lucas replied.

"Huh, that's what my brothers and father said about me when they held me after my mom gave birth," Haley said.

"Wasn't your father in the room with your mom?" Nathan asked.

"No, he had to stay in the waiting room to make sure the others didn't trash the place," Haley replied, giggling at the memory of her father telling her that a while back.

"So exactly what would she be to me?" Nathan asked, wondering about the whole relation thing.

"Your cousin," Haley replied.

"That's weird, my brother's sister being my cousin," Nathan said.

"Well, if Keith were your dad, then she'd be your sister," Haley said.

"One could dream," Nathan said, wondering how things would have turned out if his uncle were his father instead of his actual father.

"But then I wouldn't be your brother," Lucas said.

"Yeah, that would suck," Nathan said.

"You'll probably be like a brother to her anyways," Haley said.

"And James will probably be her best friend," Lucas added.

Haley smiled at the thought of her son and Luke's sister growing up as best friends. "Yeah," she nodded in agreement. "That would be something."


	10. Chapter 10

_Thanks to saderia, bellasmomma, HJS-NS-23, ell6ange, kaykay, luvnaley23, courtneylovejason, naley4ever323 and LaFilmeMichelle for reviewing._

_Thanks to Christina for editing._

_It's BACK! Yes, I know this story has been missed by certain readers so I decided that it would be the first story I pull off of hiatus and get back to work on it. Enjoy the tenth chapter everyone._

_Kate _

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**10.**

"Why are you always so whiny after your set?" Haley complained as she turned around to face Chris Keller once again.

He had just performed a set of songs off of his upcoming album for his last performance at TRIC before he hit the road to promote the album on his new tour.

Then, ten seconds after he got a standing ovation from the crowd of Tree Hill and other fans that had come to check him out from neighbouring towns; he walked off stage and made a beeline for her office.

Haley had been on the way out at the time and the two had nearly crashed into each other but Haley's now huge pregnant stomach had served as an indicator to Chris that she was there.

She had taken one look at the expression on his face, told him that she didn't want to hear whatever he had to say this time and continued on her way to the crowded club floor to sit back down with her husband.

But her warning had not deterred Chris in the least. He started to follow her and list all the things that had been wrong with the stage while he performed. If it wasn't the fact that there weren't enough lights around the stage where he sat in his chair, strumming his guitar and sang, it would be that there were too many lights on in the audience and they blinded him.

"I'm a musician, Haley," Chris began to explain, but when Haley scoffed he stopped mid sentence and glared at her. "I am!"

"You're far too demanding for someone who is only releasing their _second_ album," Haley criticized.

Chris scoffed at her naïveté. "Compared to those pop princesses and boy band pansies, I am a breeze," he pointed out.

"And just for the record, exactly how many albums have _you_ released since the tour?" Chris challenged.

Haley laughed genuinely at him. Despite their rickety past and professional differences, they still managed to get along at times. "None, but then again, I'm not a musician," Haley said.

"Oh, yes, you are. You've just given your music up," Chris retorted.

"There are more important things in my life now than some pipe dream I had when I was seventeen," Haley replied, putting her arms around her stomach.

"And I when I go back to school, I will continue to work towards becoming a music teacher," she said.

"You want to be a music teacher?" Chris raised his brows curiously.

"Yes," Haley nodded.

"Great for you. Now let's get back to me," Chris said.

Haley sighed in exhaustion. "What's the point? This was your last performance. So it doesn't matter if there were too many lights, or not enough. It doesn't matter if your microphone squeaks when you sing high and by the way, sometimes that means you're singing _too_ high," she said.

"I wasn't going," he began to say but she cut him off.

"Your songs were good, the crowd ate you up so go ahead and give yourself a big pat on the back or whatever it is you do to stroke your ego and leave me the hell alone," Haley finished.

Chris stared at her in amusement for a few minutes while she glared at him in frustration.

"Are you done?" he asked, cracking a smile at her.

"Keller, I swear to God, if you're going to list one thing wrong with this place, I will punch you _again_," Haley warned.

"Relax, I'm not going to complain," he said, putting his hands up as a sign of peace.

"Then what do you want?" Haley asked, looking at him undecidedly.

"I want to book a gig," he said.

"What?" Haley asked.

"I want to add TRIC to my tour," he explained. "Tree Hill is a big part of my fan base and I feel comfortable here. It's almost like coming home when I visit. Plus, the publicity would lift the club's earnings."

Haley stared at him wide-eyed. "Did you just think about someone other than yourself?" she asked.

Chris narrowed his eyes at the accusation. "Of course not," he snapped and stepped away from her as if he had been burned by her words. "The gig will help boost TRIC's earnings but I'm totally doing this for myself."

"Uh-huh," Haley chirped disbelievingly.

"I am," he insisted.

"Okay, fine, when do you want to perform?" she asked, changing the subject.

"July," Chris replied.

Haley wrinkled her brow at him. "That's two months from now," she said.

"That's when I'll be back in North Carolina," he replied, shrugging carelessly.

"Okay," Haley said as she went back to her office and marked the day down.

"I'm going to pack up and then I'll be out of here," Chris said as he stood by the door to her office.

"Good for you," Haley muttered disinterestedly.

"You're not going to give me a goodbye kiss?" he asked, looking at her disappointedly.

"I'll give you a farewell punch if you want," Nathan said from behind him in the hallway as he turned the corner to his wife's office.

"Hey, Nate," Chris smiled brilliantly at the basketball star. "That's sweet of you to offer, but I don't have time for that. I'm late as it is."

"Then you should get going," Haley suggested, her gaze looking at the doorway pointedly.

It didn't take Chris long to get past Nathan and disappear down the hallway.

Nathan looked at her curiously. "Does he do that a lot?" he asked, looking angry.

Haley shook her head. "He knew you were there, Nathan, that's why he did it," she said.

Her husband looked at her in shock. "I wasn't trying to eavesdrop," he insisted.

"Really?" she raised an eyebrow at him.

"Honestly, but when I came back to see what was taking you so long, I saw you and Chris talking in the hallway and then you led him back to your office and I got curious," he said.

"He wanted to book another performance," Haley explained.

"Are you almost ready to leave?" he asked, his eyes heavy with exhaustion.

Haley smirked and walked over to hug him. "Yes, I'm ready to go now," she said and she felt his arms come around her back and pull her closer to him.

"But I do need to be able to get my purse and coat," she said after a few minutes.

"Okay," he pouted and let her go.

Haley reached for her purse off the top of her desk, throwing her cell phone back in the front pocket and then put her arms through the sleeves of her coat that Nathan held out to her.

"Thank you," she said when she fastened the zipper up half way.

"You're welcome," he said and they headed towards the door but as soon as Haley reached the light switch and began to flick the lights off, her desk phone rang.

"Don't answer it," Nathan told her immediately and grabbed a hold of her left arm and gently pulled her towards the doorway.

"I might as well," Haley protested.

"No, you're out the door," Nathan shook his head.

"No, you are but I'm still in the room," Haley replied, pulling out of his grasp and walking back to her desk.

"Hales, come on," he said.

"Oh, be quiet you big baby, it's just one phone call," she said as she picked up the receiver and held it to her ear, ignoring Nathan's scoff.

"Hello?" she spoke into the phone.

"Is this Haley Scott?" a strange woman on the other line asked.

"Yes," Haley replied hesitantly.

"Are you Deborah Scott's daughter-in-law?" she asked.

_Deb_, Haley thought miserably. What had she done now?

"Yes, I am," she replied bitterly.

"Is your husband with you?" the woman asked.

Haley's gaze flashed to Nathan. "Why, what's wrong?" she asked protectively. She did not want Deb to suck him back into her problems. Nathan had finally cut Deb off after the whole gun in the café incident and it had taken a lot of strength for him.

It had been unbearable to turn his back on his mother when it was so obvious to everyone that she needed help but Nathan had said that he had done all he could for her and that it was time to give tough love a try.

Nathan looked at her in confusion as he finally came back into the office. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Mrs. Scott is being held on a 24-hour psychiatric observation," the woman said.

"What?" Haley demanded, reaching out her hand for Nathan who took it almost immediately.

"Your mother-in-law is recovering from a failed suicide attempt from earlier tonight," the woman said.

"I'm the head nurse here at the hospital," she added.

Haley felt tears sting her eyes as she thought of Deb swallowing a whole bottle of pills in the bedroom of her big house where she lived all alone. "How bad is she?" Haley asked.

"I need to talk to your husband. I can't release that information to you," the nurse said simply.

"But I'm her daughter-in-law! I'm family!" Haley protested, a sentence she never thought she'd say with so much conviction.

"But you're _not_ her daughter, I need to talk to her son," the nurse said regretfully.

Haley held the phone away from her face and turned to Nathan sadly. "Your mom's in the hospital. She tried to commit suicide," she explained, saying it as quickly as she could to get it over with. She figured it wouldn't matter if she told him gently or simply, he would still be hurt either way.

Nathan paled visibly and he tightened his grip around her hand. Haley knew he was struggling to keep his tears under control. It wasn't often Nathan cried but when he did, he did so in the privacy of their bedroom or apartment, never in public.

Haley just wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a loose hug. "It's okay," she said as she handed him the receiver so he could talk to the nurse. "The nurse needs to tell you about her condition."

Nathan spoke softly to the woman on the phone and when his wife tried to pull away from the hug, he stopped her, tightening his one arm around her back in a silent plea for her to keep hugging him while he was on the phone.

After he hung up with the nurse, he explained to Haley that the hospital had to pump his mother's stomach but they weren't sure if all the pills were recovered. She was in intensive care and on a suicide watch for 24 hours.

"We should probably go see her," he said while they were in the car.

"Okay," Haley said as she started the engine of the car and pulled out of the parking lot.

"I'm going to check our messages," he said as he took his cell phone and dialled the number to their answering machine.

There were two new messages. The first was from Brooke and she called to remind Haley of their plans for the weekend.

Nathan told Haley about the message and she rolled her eyes and then told him that the message was garbage. Brooke and she didn't have plans anymore.

"Message deleted," the machine's automated voice said.

"Nathan," Deb Scott's voice came on the line and Nathan jumped, rattled by how delirious and depressed his mother sounded. "I'm sorry, I couldn't be what you needed me to be. I'm not the mother you deserve. I'm not what anyone deserves and I know that now."

"She's going to try again," Nathan voiced his realization aloud.

Haley glanced at him. "You don't know that," she said.

"I just got her goodbye message," he informed her.

Rage was the first emotion that Haley identified after he played the message again over the speaker after she had pulled to the side of the road. She didn't like that Deb always managed to hurt Nathan worse every time she did something. Sadness was the second emotion. For all her faults, Deb was a decent enough person and it was heartbreaking to hear her sound so defeated.

"She's going to keep trying until she succeeds," Nathan said, returning to the subject.

"Then we won't let her try again," Haley said in determination.

"How are we going to stop her?" he asked.

"We're going to be there to watch over her," Haley said.

"What are we going to do, move in with her?" Nathan asked incredulously.

Haley looked at him and when he realized that she was considering doing so he looked at her in disbelief. "Really? You would really do that for her after everything she's done?" he asked.

"Yes," Haley replied.

"Why?" Nathan asked.

"Because I'm not only doing it for her, I'm doing it for you and our son too," Haley replied.


End file.
